The Ottawa Senators will return to the ice Thursday afternoon at Little Caesars Arena after dropping a 6-1 decision to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night on the road and opting not to skate after waking up Wednesday morning ranked No. 30 overall in the league.

Yes, they’re still 12 points ahead of the last-place Detroit Red Wings, their opponent here Friday night, but the rebuilding Senators are now 0-4-1 in their last five games and while the Capitals may be the NHL’s top team, the players in the Ottawa room know they have to compete harder to dig themselves out of this hole.

Everybody is trying to find answers because the club’s play in its own end has slipped and they’re giving up huge opportunities that are landing in the back of the net. Craig Anderson was pulled Tuesday night after giving up five goals on 30 shots, but he could have used a little help.

“It’s got to be answers from within and I know that’s the easy way out for me,” said alternate captain Mark Borowiecki following the club’s loss in Washington. “We’ve just got to come together and keep working through this.

“It’s not going to be any one thing and it’s not all of a sudden the light bulb is going to go on and we’re going to start wining games. We know we can play with teams like this, we’re doing it in spurts, and now it’s just about piecing it together for 60 minutes.

“We’re not going to play a perfect game. We’re going to have five-, 10- or 20-minute stretches where we’re not playing well, but we’ve got to figure out a way to hold the fort in some respect and get ourselves back into it as quickly as possible.”

TOUGH NIGHT FOR PAUL

Just as the Senators got Dylan DeMelo off the injured-reserve list, winger Nick Paul suffered an ankle/leg injury that’s going to keep him out at least two weeks and likely more.

The 24-year-old Paul, who has worked hard to make the NHL, had to be helped off the ice in the loss to the Capitals after he fell awkwardly into the boards trying to make a hit. With six goals and 13 points in 37 games, Paul had been playing well lately by using his size. He’ll have more tests before a determination is made on how long he’ll be out.

Senators left-winger Nick Paul (13) reacts after being injured during the second period of Tuesday’s game against the Capitals.Brad Mills /
USA TODAY Sports

“He’s been a guy that shows up for work every single day, a great teammate, and it looks like it will be a couple of weeks. We’ll get it looked at but it looks like he’ll be done for the foreseeable future,” coach D.J. Smith said post-game.

It’s tough for Paul, who was in a walking boot, because he had settled nicely into his role with the Senators and his teammates felt for him.

“It’s never fun to see a teammate go down and to see that he was in pain,” Pageau said. “Hopefully he’s going to be healthy as soon as possible. He’s a key player for us, he shows up every night, he’s a big body and he brings a physical game. That’s going to be missing from us for sure.”

Borowiecki echoed those thoughts.

“He’s been a huge part of this team since his call-up and he plays so well on both sides of the puck, defensively especially,” he said. “For a guy who hasn’t been a household name in this league and play the matchups he has against the guys he has, I know as a defenceman when he’s on the ice, you feel comfortable in (defensive) zone play.

“You know he’s going to be in the right spot and to see a guy like that go down sucks.”

Blueliner Christian Jaros also left the game after a collision with T.J. Oshie but his status won’t be known until after the club’s skate Thursday.

“He seemed to be OK,” Smith said.

THE LAST WORDS

DeMelo, who missed 10 games with a broken finger, was busy in his return against the Caps with 26:19 of playing time.

Yes, he was a little bit out of sync, but DeMelo expects to get back to the form that made him successful early in the season in fairly short order. He was paired with top blueliner Thomas Chabot, who played 29:28.

Of course, that’s partially because the team finished the game with five defencemen.

“For the most part, I thought I had my lungs and my legs,” DeMelo said. “There’s a little bit of rust involved, but I think once I kind of get a few more games, a few more touches and I think I only practised once or twice with the team, once I get back into some things like that it’s going to help offensively with some situations.

“Maybe you give the puck up quicker than you need too sometimes but I thought I made some plays to help break us out. There’s some things I can do better but I just wanted to get back into it and feel good and, for the most part, I was able to do that.”

DeMelo did save a goal by Alex Ovechkin when he pushed a puck off the line behind Anderson in the second, only to have the Caps’ higher scorer not long after.

“(Ovechkin) and the crowd were pretty disappointed. I just saw it on the goal line and tried to get there as quick as I could. It was nice to keep him off the scoresheet for a little bit,” DeMelo added.

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